80,000 new additions take PM-SYM's total subscriber count to over 44 lakh

A total of 80,694 small traders subscribed to the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana so far in the current fiscal till September 21, taking the total number of subscribers to the scheme to 44,45,605 since its inception in 2019.
Over Rs 173 crore has been spent on the scheme so far this year as against the budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crore for 2020-21, labour minister Santosh Gangwar said in a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday.

This is significantly lower than 5,31,570 net additions between December and March, highlighting the stress on jobs and earnings post Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown amongst street vendors, rickshaw pullers and others.

The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic has impacted voluntary investments by individuals to any kind of social security scheme during this time as they hold on to cash for meeting any emergency situation.

The total subscribers to the scheme till date stands at 38,58,308 with bulk of contribution coming from Uttar Pradesh (224155) followed by Haryana (92157) and Maharashtra (10154).

Under the PM-SYM launched in February 2019, an unorganised worker, aged 18-40 years, has to contribute between Rs 55-200 and a matching contribution is made by the Centre. This will make subscribers eligible for a minimum assured pension of Rs 3000 per month, life long on attaining the age of 60 years.

The unorganised workers mostly engaged as home based workers, street vendors, mid-day meal workers, head loaders, brick kiln workers, cobblers, rag pickers, domestic workers, washer men, rickshaw pullers, landless labourers, own account workers, agricultural workers, construction workers, beedi workers, handloom workers, leather workers and audio- visual workers, who earn less than Rs 15,000 per month and are not included in any organised social security scheme of the government and is not an income tax payee could enrol under this old-age protection scheme.

India has over 400 million unorganised workers and a little over 1% has so far enrolled under the scheme after one-and-a-half years of its launch.